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April 4-10, 2005
Opening Day. The only day in the whole season where every team is in first, where every team is undefeated. The day where hope springs eternal for teams that only a few short months ago were in last place. All fans have a reason to hope on opening day. Well, almost all fans. Devil Rays fans are usually screwed no matter what day it is. Unlike 2/3 of the teams, the Houston Astros don’t open the season on April 4. Instead, they open a day later, on April 5.

The only thing of note on opening day was an injury. On a cold, rainy night in Oakland, reliever Kiko Colero came on in the 7th with the A’s behind 3-2. After surrendering 1 run and 2 hits, and getting 2 outs, a rain delay of 48 minutes ensued. All pitchers are advised to completely warm up and stretch before throwing hard. Evidently, Kiko did not take this advice to heart. On the first pitch to Miguel Tejada, Kiko collapsed in pain. Preliminary X-Ray results revealed that he had suffered a torn rotator cuff, and that his career was most likely over. This is a huge blow to the A’s pen.

April 5 is a beautiful, sunny day in Houston, TX. A sellout crowd of 40,930 is in attendance, the hated cardinals are in town, and Roger Clemens is on the mound. What a way to start a season. Despite a double allowed to Pujols and a passed ball by Ausmus, the Cards fail to score in the top of the 1st. Like the Cards, the Astros get a runner on in the first, but fail to capitalize when Bagwell grounds into a double play. Several quiet innings go by, until the bottom of the 5th. Chris Carpenter is cruising, with the single in the first the only hit allowed. Then in the 5th, the wheels come off. First, Mike Lamb sends a slow roller to Grudzielanek at second. Inexplicably, Grudzielanek bootes the ball, and by the time he recoveres and gets it to first, Lamb is already there. Next Carpenter issues his second walk of the afternoon to Jason Lane. With runners on first and second with nobody out, Adam Everett singles to center, scoring Mike Lamb while Jason Lane advances to third on the throw home. With Adam Everett running on the pitch, Brad Ausmus grounds the ball to Eckstein at SS. Lane scores, and just like that, the Astros have given Roger a 2 run lead. Carpenter manages to get out of the inning without allowing any further damage, but 2 runs should be plenty for Clemens.

After 6.2 innings and 99 pitches, Clemens is pulled and the game is turned over to the Astros pen. What does the pen promptly do? Give up 2 runs in the eight and one in the ninth to put the Astros down heading to the bottom of the ninth. Isringhausen comes on to try to get the save. First he strikes out Biggio swinging. Bagwell singles and the pinch runner Chris Burke advances to second on a wild pitch. Mike Lamb then strikes out swinging and the Astros are down to their final out. After a lengthy battle, Jason Lane sends a liner past a diving Pujols and down the right field line. Burke scores, and the game is tied! Adam Everett then goes down swinging to promptly end the threat. However, the Astros send the game to extra frames. In the bottom of the 11th, Julian Tavarez comes on and quickly gets the first two outs. With only 33 career home runs to his credit, Jose Vizcaino ends it with a shot down the left field line. What a game!

After the game finished, I noticed 3 E-Mails in my mailbox. As expected, they were confirming retirements at the end of the year. Craig Biggio, Jose Vizcaino, and John Franco confirmed that they are going to retire after the season.

After the first week of baseball, I have somehow been able to garner a 3-2 record. I say this with some amazement, because my team only has a 0.192 AVG and a 0.227 OBP. The only fortunate thing I can come up with is that 5 games is a very small sample size. Also at the end of the first week, Craig Biggio is only 4 SB shy of 400 and 6 RBI shy of 1,000.

I made a couple of minor personnel changes. First of all, I claimed 3B Jorge Cantu off waivers from TB. Cantu isn’t a huge prospect, but he is good defensively at multiple infield positions and has decent offensive talent. Now if I can just get him to develop, I think this will be a good pickup. I also wanted to sign Alex Cora, who is currently a FA, but he was demanding well over $500,000 and wouldn’t settle for my offer of $450,000. Oh well, he wasn’t really needed, but it might have been a small upgrade to my offense. It is kinda sad when I consider someone with his abilities an offensive upgrade. I also signed LF Peter Bergeron to a Minor League Contract, and am hoping he will develop some of his talents in the minors. He has potential to be a pretty good outfielder, but I’m not holding my breath on him.

OK, so maybe I won’t do a full month in 1 post. As it is, this one week is a pretty long post. I think I will just play it by ear when it comes to length. Feel free to let me know what you think of this thread in general, or of any moves I have made specifically. Constructive criticism is always welcome.